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lionesslynn

Member Since 27 Dec 2011
Offline Last Active Oct 14 2023 09:28 AM

#6789095 [2015.03.29] Malaysian F1 Post Race Concert

Posted by lionesslynn on 04 April 2015 - 08:49 AM

Disclaimer: I’m an ahjumma fan; my memory is not what it used to be, so I might have gotten some things wrong. Also, I didn’t take any photos at the concert – I was too busy enjoying myself. The photo of the race car is mine and the concert photos are from my friend and partner-in-crime for all Soshi related activities, and she didn’t take that many photos either. I’ve included a short account of the race as well, so those interested to read only about the concert, please scroll down to where it says “Concert.”




THE RACE

My friend and I got to the Sepang International Circuit around 3 p.m., and saw the long queue waiting to enter the concert ground. We knew that the gate would only open at 4.30 p.m. and the concert wouldn’t start until around 5.30 p.m., so we decided to watch the race rather than join the queue. I mean, this is Malaysia, where the temperature is in the 30s and the air so humid you’d sweat buckets within minutes. Standing in line and waiting for more than two hours for the concert to start with only a cap for protection against the hot sun was not a particularly attractive choice (I take my cap off to those brave Sones and Shawols who did just that). At least the hill stand area has some palm oil trees at the top of the hill where we could take shelter from the heat.

Neither of us had been to an F1 race before, so it was quite a novel experience. I was surprised that the F1 engines weren’t as loud as I thought they would be, but I guess there is a huge difference in the noise level between the grassy hill stand areas and the main stand or the grandstand areas, where the concrete structure and the roof would amplify the sound. There were probably only about a hundred people in our hill stand, so there were plenty of space for us to sit under the shade of the palm oil trees. I’ve seen the hill stands from previous races on TV and they were at least half full. In contrast, the covered hill stand to our right were pretty full and, towards the middle of the race, more people left the roofed area to sit closer to the racetrack. We figured that most people who bought tickets to the open hill stands got them just to get into the concert and that most of them were busy queuing up back at the concert ground.

We had no idea which driver or team was leading the race since our area didn’t have one of those big screens broadcasting the race (the covered hill stand to our right had one) but judging from the cheers that rose when a Ferrari whizzed by, we figured they were in front. We honestly don’t know much about F1 racing and I think the remarks we made would seriously annoy F1 enthusiasts, “Hey, that red and white car doesn’t have any sponsor logos, does that mean they used the spare car?” (no idea), “Why are they waving the blue flag, does it mean that it’s raining on the track? Or *gasp* a crash?” (no, it meant a car was about to be lapped by a faster car), “Is this Ferrari the race leader or is it the other Ferrari?” (it was the one being hotly pursued by the two Mercedes cars), “What are these tiny annoying bugs? They’re making my skin itch” (don’t know, but Sepang is built in the middle of a palm oil plantation, so yeah, expect some bugs, especially for the grassy hill stand areas).

There were three corners at our part of the circuit and we were hoping to see some overtaking actions but either these corners were not ideal for that, or the cars were too far apart, because we didn’t get to see any at all, much to our disappointment. Around two hours after the race started, we knew that it was going to end soon, and the huge roar from the grandstand confirmed it. It was really cool to watch the race winner, Sebastian Vettel, waving to the crowd from his car during his lap of honour. When all the cars had left the track, we made our way via an inside lane back to the main entrance (which is close to the concert ground). The sun was still shining pretty brightly but there were some cloud cover, so it wasn’t as hot as before, and the 20-minute walk was quite comfortable. If you were too lazy to walk, you could just take the shuttle bus on the main road for free. And there were also these enterprising young guys offering to ferry people on their motorbikes for RM5 (about USD1.50).

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Race leader and eventual winner Sebastian Vettel in his Ferrari. At least, I think it was him. It was too gosh darn far to tell.




THE CONCERT

We joined the queue at the concert ground and it only took us about 10 minutes to get inside. We decided to chill at the back of the concert area rather than push our way to the front of the stage – we knew we’d get crushed and we’d only get to see the back of people’s head rather than the stage because, yeah, we’re both vertically-challenged (though my friend would hotly dispute that). Plus, there was a huge screen on each side of the stage, and we were standing directly in front of one. We figured if we can’t see the stage from where we were, we’d at least be able to see the screen. We had no idea who the opening acts were, but we danced and sang along when they asked us to. I seriously don’t get those people who go to concerts and simply stood still watching the performance. The idea is to have fun and enjoy yourself, so dance, sing along and just let loose!

After the end of the opening act, they played SNSD and Shinee songs, so of course we danced and sang along to that, too. Then Hitch Hiker came on. He was wearing this silver-coloured spacesuit thing and my friend immediately felt sorry for him; it must’ve been hot for him in there. Maybe it’s just me, but I thought his music was a little weird. I had expected a thumping beat that you could dance and jump around to but his beat felt… I dunno… a little off? There were these three Caucasian guys in front of us and you could tell they were ready to jump and dance because they were doing a bit of it during the SNSD/Shinee filler songs. When Hitch Hiker started playing his music, the three guys looked pretty confused, like they were thinking “How the eff do you dance to this?” I felt like patting their backs and saying “I feel you, man. I don’t know how to, either.”

After Hitch Hiker, there were a couple more filler songs. It had started to rain but we brought along disposable raincoats (pink ones!), so we were fine. It was more of a light drizzle rather than a heavy downpour but after a few minutes, some of the more casual concert-goers decided to leave. It opened up some space in front of us and we were able to move a little bit closer to the stage. Usually at outdoor concerts, they prohibit the use of umbrellas as they block the view, but this was more of a casual concert, a side show to the main event, so the no-umbrella rule wasn’t enforced. A few umbrellas popped up here and there, but we just moved around them. We could do that easily since we were standing at the back where it wasn’t packed with people, but I felt sorry for those people at the front who had to stand behind an umbrella and had nowhere to go.

Then it was the girls’ turn. The cheer was really loud when they came out, smiling at the crowd. They looked gorgeous in these white outfits with sequins – I think these might be the same ones they wore for SMTown Taiwan? Yoona was missing from the line-up; I think she was shooting for her drama in China. The girls quickly took their positions and straight away launched into MR. TAXI. They sounded really good and the fan chant was loud, not just for this song but all throughout. I think the level of spazzing at the front must’ve been quite intense because you could see the girls breaking into smiles every now and then. Parts of the choreography looked a little bit lopsided, and at times the girls seemed to hesitate or checked themselves when they were changing positions, but I think it was understandable given that it was supposed to be for nine and they had to make do with seven. Tiffany and Taeyeon waved at each other during the ‘say goodbye’ part. I noticed that Sunny was looking somewhat glum; she hardly smiled even during her singing parts but thankfully it was nicely balanced out by Tiffany’s generous smiles.

When the song ended, the girls quickly went to stand in a line and the crowd roared when they realised that it was for TELL ME YOUR WISH. I think that, and the roar following Tiffany’s “Malaysia, put it back on!”, were some of the loudest cheers for the whole concert. Seriously, I only heard her say “Malaysia” because the rest of it were totally drowned out by the rapturous crowd. There was also a cute moment between Yuri, Hyoyeon and Sooyoung. You know that part where they stood in two rows and those in front were supposed to extend their hand behind them for the person in the back to clap? Yuri let out this cute laugh when she realised that Sooyoung didn’t extend her hand and she was left swatting air. Hyoyeon saw it when she turned to clap Yuri’s hand and Sooyoung turned to look when she heard Yuri laughing, and both of them grinned at Yuri. Hyoyeon’s short solo dance was sharp and sweet – man, that girl sure can dance. Taeyeon’s ad lib singing was totally spot on, and it never ceases to amaze me how she can walk backward and slot nicely into the diagonal line without ever needing to look behind her.

It was still drizzling and the front part of the stage was wet, so they had performed in the middle of the stage where it was relatively drier. After the song ended, they stood in a row to introduce themselves and Tiffany (bless her heart!) urged the others to move forward, almost right to the edge. Each INTRODUCTION was met with very loud cheers. Tiffany asked us if we were OK out in the rain, and I think it was Sooyoung who asked “How have you been? Long time no see, right?” Malaysian Sones had arranged for a fan event, pink balloons with the words “Finally, You’re Back”, a sequel to the fan event for the 2012 Petronas Twin Towers Concert which had fan signs that read “Finally, You’re Here.” Both Sunny and Tiffany mentioned it; except Sunny mistakenly said the latter instead of the former, while Tiffany thanked Sones, saying that it was cute and sweet. Tiffany translated for Sooyoung who said that they were glad to be here for this great event, and thanked the Petronas F1 organisers for bringing them back so that they could meet their Malaysian fans again. Tiffany then told us that they have a long list of songs lined up for us, and asked if it was OK for them to go on to the next one, which received a resounding “Yes!”

THE BOYS was next. Taeyeon and Sooyoung had a quick chat when the music started, as did Yuri and Hyoyeon on the other side of the formation, but they all put on their game face just before they started singing. Poor Tiffany was all alone at the back at the start of the song. The crowd yelled out “G.G.” and “T.R.X.” and the fan chant was really loud. I think their left side of the stage (our right) had a big puddle of water because whichever member was on that side would look down and seemed to move or walk with greater care. At Yuri’s rap part where they did the half split, Tiffany was on that side and she extended her leg only after she had crouched down; she probably didn’t want to risk having her leg slide out from under her. When they all stood up, you could see Tiffany was looking down while walking forward, and she missed out on one part of the choreography because of that. Also, when Yuri was rapping, she saw that the zipper on her shoe had come undone and quickly zipped it up before they stood up. Taeyeon totally nailed her “My heaarrrrttttt” bit, as well as Jessica’s ascending “Girls bring the boys out” part, but if I’m not mistaken, nobody sang Yoona’s ‘Athena’ rap part (Waaahahahaha I didn't realise that Yuri forgot the lyrics to Yoona's earlier part until I saw fancams! No wonder Yuri gave a sheepish smile while Tiffany had an outright devilish grin right after that).

The Boys ended the girls’ first set and it was Shinee’s turn to take the stage. I don’t really know their songs, but I was impressed with their dancing. I never noticed this before, but watching them perform live, I belatedly realised that the choreography for their songs are pretty intense that they simply cannot afford to muck about, which resulted in a very energetic performance every time. At one point, they danced so hard that when the song ended, you could hear the boys panting loudly. For their first set, Onew wore this simple t-shirt and he gave off this really laidback and cool vibe. I thought Key and Jonghyun had such a charismatic presence that it was difficult to take your eyes off them when they’re singing. Minho was just so cute and cuddly that you feel like taking him home. I’m sorry to say that I was so focused on those four boys that I didn’t really notice Taemin. Not that there was anything wrong with him, just that the other boys got my attention that I kept looking at them even when Taemin was singing. I was surprised that they used a translator during their talk. I felt that Key’s English was very good that I thought he would translate for the other members the way Tiffany does for Girls’ Generation.

After Shinee’s energetic performance, the girls came back out and slowed things down with the ballad, COMPLETE. They stood in a row facing the crowd, and the girls smiled and waved to the crowd as they sang. Again they sounded good and I wish they had sung it a capella, which would give us the chance to hear their harmonisation better. Tiffany changed her final line to “Malaysia, you made my life complete” much to the delight of the crowd. I think most of the Sones were younger or newer fans because I couldn’t hear the fan chant, but they made up for it by chanting “So Nyeo Shi Dae! So Nyeo Shi Dae!” when it ended, earning smiles from the girls. They then sang BACKHUG. Sones sang along to Taeyeon’s final line, “Please cover my heart,” again making all the girls smile. It was pretty windy during both songs and the wind was blowing straight at the girls. You could see them occasionally turning their face to the side, or looking down, or squinting, trying to protect their eyes from the wind as best as they could. For one of the songs (I forgot which), Sunny’s hair completely covered her face, but she kept on going like nothing happened. I laughed out loud at that because she kind of looked like Cousin Itt from The Addams Family.

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The girls singing Complete (Photo credit: I_am_Naz_Z)


This was followed by another TALK session. I tried my best to remember everything that was said; my apologies if I got them wrong. I think it was Sooyoung who said that the day’s performance felt special because of the ‘nice’ weather (it was raining and very windy), she hoped that it would at least make it memorable for everyone. Tiffany said that it was the first time they sang Backhug for us and asked if we liked it. Sooyoung told the crowd that Yoona said hi to the Malaysian fans and that she hoped she could come back the next time, so to please invite them back. Yuri grinned mischievously and did a big heart sign at that. Tiffany then said they had a few more dance songs for us, so they would like to go straight into them and Sooyoung did a cute little dance. Tiffany said I Got A Boy but someone (I think it was Seohyun?) quickly corrected it to Hoot. Sooyoung then revealed that there would be a special guest performing the song along with them and asked the crowd to welcome Hitch Hiker.

HOOT is one of my favourites, so I was happily dancing and singing along with them that I didn’t pay too much attention to what was happening on stage. I remember Tiffany flicked at her hand and shook her mic during the first chorus (a drop of rain, or a bug perhaps?); Hyoyeon noticed it and they grinned at each other. The wind was pretty strong and it kept messing up their hair, and you could see some of the members laughing over it when they turned to face the back of the stage. There were fireworks at one point; Sunny seemed to hold back a bit from moving forward until it was over and you could see her smiling slightly. If I’m not mistaken, Taeyeon messed up one of the ‘arrow’ dance; I think it was because they had changed the order slightly to suit seven members. Towards the end, Yuri valiantly fought the wind and lost. It didn’t matter how many times she pushed her hair back, the wind kept blowing at it and it kept covering her face. It was unfortunate that she was right at the front of the formation. Some of the girls were laughing when they finished the song; Hyoyeon chuckling at Yuri, and Sooyoung and Tiffany giggling on one side. Oh, and I honestly couldn’t tell what was Hitch Hiker’s contribution to the song – the music sounded the same to me.

I GOT A BOY was next. The fan chant was really loud and I think that the crowd’s great reception to the song made the girls even more relaxed and comfortable. They looked like they were really having fun and enjoying themselves. Not that they weren’t before, but it looked to me like they just took it up a notch. The smoke machine got in Taeyeon’s face and she turned to laugh, making some of the the others laugh as well. Hyoyeon made this playful voice which caused Tiffany to grin at her. Tiffany hit Taeyeon’s butt and made Taeyeon smile. Yuri looked to her left instead of her right during Tiffany’s “Let me put it down another way” because that was where Tiffany usually stands. The girls caught each other’s eyes and broke into giggles, smiles or smirks. Even the gloomy-looking Sunny managed a couple of tiny smiles. When Tiffany took over Yoona’s rap, Yuri and Sooyoung pointed at her for some reason, which caused Tiffany to lose it and laugh. Hyoyeon was a beat too fast when they did the whispering motion and Taeyeon saw it; they looked at each other and shared a smile. It was really so much fun to watch. It was like peeking into this private little world where only they knew the joke, but you didn’t mind it somehow because the mood was just so infectious.

Then it was Shinee’s turn again. I think it was during this part that the boys walked off the stage after finishing a song and the word “Maghrib” was displayed on the screen. Being Muslim and Malaysian, we knew what it meant but some people in the crowd looked confused. Maghrib is the first evening prayer for Muslims, which is at dusk. The start of the prayer time is signalled by the ‘azan’ which is basically a call to perform your prayer. If you’re close to a mosque at the start of any of the five prayer times, you will be able to hear this ‘azan’. As a mark of respect to the ‘azan’, most Muslims will pause whatever they’re doing – conversations will become softer, TV volume will be lowered and some TV channels would interrupt their scheduled programme to broadcast the ‘azan’. Some people will wait for the ‘azan’ to end before leaving for somewhere, even if they were running late. Basically, the organisers were respecting the ‘azan’ for Maghrib when they temporarily stopped the show.

After Shinee’s set, the girls returned wearing the Mr. Mr. black dress with the white tux front and black collar. The fun mood from I Got A Boy spilled into their next song, KISSING YOU. For this, they split into two groups; Tiffany, Hyoyeon, Sunny and Seohyun went to the short walkway on one side of the stage while Taeyeon, Yuri and Sooyoung went to the other side. My friend moved closer to get a better look but I chose to hang back. The girls were giving the crowd all sorts of fanservice – smiles, waves, winks, kisses, big hearts, small hearts, you name it. Seohyun, who were rather prim and proper previously, became more animated and even Sunny managed to get into the spirit of things. They then switched sides in the middle of the song. My friend started walking back towards me as she thought they were all going back to the centre. I frantically signalled to her to stay put since her bias, Taeyeon, was coming our way. I could hear her squealing with delight when she saw Taeyeon up close. The girls then moved back to the middle of the stage, sorted their positions for the final part of the song and ended it with a flourish.


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Tiffany, Hyoyeon, Sunny and Seohyun during Kissing You. Tiffany was trying to find me in the crowd (Photo credit: I_am_Naz_Z)


They then went straight into GEE. Tiffany looked up and saw silver streamers being released and she caught some of them. Little did she know that once you catch them, they won’t let you go. Taeyeon let out this cute laugh when she saw Tiffany struggling to free herself. The playful mood went on with one member after another laughing at Tiffany’s predicament. I think Yuri simply left her position to move closer, just so she could laugh at the hapless Tiffany. Hyoyeon tried to help but gave up. Taeyeon called her “babo.” And they all pointed at her during the “babo” part, as did most Sones in the crowd. Tiffany held up her hand and cutely apologised to the crowd. It took her awhile to free herself and re-join the dance formation. Seriously, those streamers just won’t let her go! Towards the end, Yuri had trouble figuring out where she was supposed to stand and kept looking at the others. It didn’t help that Sooyoung was confused as well. They finally managed to sort themselves out and found their place in the inverted ‘V’ formation. For the ending pose, Yuri leaned on Tiffany who was leaning on Hyoyeon. As they were leaving the stage, Yuri cutely sang “naneun naneun babogabwayo” to Tiffany who laughed and again apologised to the crowd. And oh my God, Sunny smiled! With teeth!

Again it was Shinee’s turn and when they finished, a VCR of the Mr. Mr. promotions was shown – a mish mash of the MV, behind the scene shots, dance practice, music shows, fan signs, etc. I think since MR. MR. was the final song, the girls gave it their all. I felt that their singing and dancing were on point and the energy electric. It was the kind of performance that was worthy of being in any of the music shows rather than the more interactive, entertaining and audience-pleasing performances that you see at their concerts and outside of music shows where you have lots of cute smiles, winks and waves. Tiffany did this strange little walk at the start of the song where I think she was just trying to be cute. At one point, Hyoyeon was a little bit slow moving to the back. Yuri looked at her when she turned towards the side, and they both smiled. I don’t think you can see it from the front, but I was a little to the side and saw the private exchange. Apart from those little things, their performance of Mr. Mr. was perfect. Oh, by the way, there were gold streamers during the song but it rained down on the audience and nowhere near the stage, giving our Dilfany no chance to make a fool of herself again. Plus, I think she has learned her lesson.

After that, the girls called the Shinee boys out to the stage and Tiffany said that they would say their goodbyes together, to groans from the crowd who obviously didn’t want it to end. She then spoke in Korean, saying that they were happy to have spent time with us for almost two hours. She switched back to English, saying that they had never performed outdoors for their fans for this long and that they had a great time doing it in the beautiful weather (I detect a little sarcasm there, Tiffany). Taemin spoke for the boys; he thanked the crowd for joining them and hoped that they could come back to Malaysia soon. There were calls for an encore but Sooyoung put a stop to that, saying something in Korean, and switching to English to say, “We hope to see you soon, Malaysia!” All of them bowed and thanked the crowd. As they were walking off the stage, Tiffany said “Hopefully, Girls’ Generation will come back soon” (yes, please!) and one of boys said “Shinee, too!” Tiffany then said a drawn-out “Byeeeeeeee” and blew a noisy kiss, while Seohyun did a big heart sign. And that was the end of the concert.

I have to say that all the girls looked stunningly gorgeous. I’ve been lucky to have watched them in concert several times and every single time, they’ve knocked me out with their looks. Taeyeon’s singing was spot on throughout, hitting all her high notes with apparent ease. She looked adorable and appeared more relaxed compared to her normal self; cheerfully smiling and waving to the crowd. Sunny, who is usually smiley and full of aegyo, didn’t smile all that much and was generally expressionless; which was a little disconcerting to see. I think she might’ve been tired from all her individual schedules. Tiffany was being, well, Tiffany – the cheerful, eyesmiling, fanservice queen. She nailed all her singing parts, but sometimes failed in her dancing; I guess she’ll forever be the member who is often half a beat too fast. I felt that her energy level dropped a little towards the end (not enough Red Bull?) but she kept on smiling cheerfully. Her battle with the streamers was epic, though, and will probably go down into Soshi folklore and be remembered for years to come.

I thought Hyoyeon looked sweet, which I kind of didn’t expect, with her being the fierce dancing queen and all. I just love watching this girl dance; she always seem to take it a level higher than the other members. Yuri alternated between being smouldering sexy, adorably dorky and cheerfully confused. Whenever she made a mistake in her dancing or in her positioning, she simply acted like nothing was wrong, “Who, me? What? I didn’t do anything.” I thought Sooyoung was strikingly beautiful. I’ve always like the kind of look that she has, so my eyes kept straying to her. And her hair… good thing it was windy, since it gave her every opportunity to do her trademark hair flip. You hair porn queen, you. Seohyun was generally proper throughout; you know you can always depend on her to do things perfectly, be it in her singing or dancing. But she became more lively as the performance went on, enjoying and laughing at her unnies’ antics. I seriously enjoyed watching their performance and if I could take them all home, I would. Can I please adopt all of you? Yoona, too.

There were a fleet of vans on our side of the concert area and as soon as they left the stage, a bunch of Sones and Shawols rushed to wait at the railing. We thought of hanging around too, but then figured it would take them awhile to change clothes, have dinner and whatnot. Plus, we were hungry. There was a k-pop tent inside the concert area selling some stuff, including the Girl de Provence perfumes but we were too tired to check them out. As we were walking out of the concert ground, there were people selling Soshi and Shinee merchandise but again, too tired. There was a long line of shuttle buses on the main road and we took one to get to our parking bay. As we were leaving, we saw a trio of girls walking to their car, so we stopped to ask if they needed us to wait for them while they get their car since the parking bay was dark and there weren’t that many cars left, but they told us they were fine. On our way back to the city, we passed a car full of young guys waving around pink lightsticks, so we waved at them with our own lightsticks.

We stopped for dinner after the concert and it was close to midnight when I finally got home. I didn’t take any photos at the concert (my friend took a few); preferring to enjoy the concert rather than take photos and potentially miss some precious moments of the girls’ on-stage antics. It wasn’t until the next day that I checked my SNS and read that some Sones thought the girls’ performance were rather lacklustre, that they were “half-assing” their performance. I was surprised at that. Were we really watching the same performance? My friend and I have been lucky enough to catch Girls’ Generation’s solo concerts and performances since we became fans, so we do have some reference points, and we honestly didn’t see that much difference between this performance and those others that we’ve watched before (for those interested: the 2011 Girls’ Generation Tour and the 2013 Girls & Peace Tour both in Singapore, and the 2012 Petronas Twin Tower Concert in Malaysia). And like most Sones everywhere, we’ve watched countless fancams of various performances.

I have to say that I’m not the type of fan who knows all the lyrics to their songs (I can sing along to the easier choruses, especially those in English). Neither am I the kind of fan who can remember the choreography or where the girls were standing at any given point in a song. I’d be the first to admit I’m not that knowledgeable about singing, but I generally can tell whether they hit the right note, or if it’s a little off. For this performance, I feel their singing and dancing were generally on point. Yes, there were times when some of their singing were a little off, but I felt that those were mainly for some of the parts where the girls covered the missing members’ parts. Their dancing was good too. Of course it was never going to have the military precision of their MVs, but they were generally in sync. There were a few unsure movements and correcting of positions but I attribute it to them having to adjust to performing as seven, where they probably didn’t have that much time for practice as a group, given their schedule and preparation for the upcoming Japanese single. As for forgetting lyrics, that I honestly can’t tell.

I also read some comments mentioning their attitude, but I didn’t see anything that indicated they weren’t interested or were indifferent. Other than Sunny who was generally expressionless and did not smile much, the other girls smiled and waved at the crowd, threw heart signs and kisses. I don’t know about others, but I’m willing to forgive Sunny because well, look, there were six others who were smiling and waving at me! Us! I meant us! They looked like they were having fun and enjoying themselves; more so from I Got A Boy onwards. I much prefer seeing them like this, seeing them occasionally goofing off rather than them being more serious, as this was far more entertaining. The concert venue was small and intimate; and I feel that this kind of performance suited the venue perfectly, allowing the crowd to feel more connected to the girls. And I thought the girls were quite the troopers for performing in a weather condition that wasn’t so favourable, what with the rain seeping onto the stage and the wind buffeting them. Thank you for coming, Girls’ Generation, and I hope these won’t keep you from coming back to perform in Malaysia. It’s funny, though; the last time the girls came to Malaysia, they performed at night where it should’ve been cooler but it was hot and humid instead. This time, they performed in the late afternoon where it should’ve been hot and humid but instead it was cold, wet and windy.

As for complaints about the relatively poor organisation of events, I read that it has been a constant gripe for the past few years, and that ticket sales for the F1 has been declining partly because of that. Unlike in Singapore where the F1 events are generally well co-ordinated and organised, the Malaysian one has been somewhat lacking. My friend and I were kind of prepared for it, arming ourselves with a schedule of events and a map of the area. And when we had questions, we were lucky enough to encounter staff who were knowledgeable and helpful. It helped that we’ve been to several concerts, indoors and outdoors, and knew exactly what to expect. We wore a cap and brought umbrellas to protect against the sun, a paper fan to beat back the heat, a raincoat in case it rains, a change of clothes in case we got soaked, and wet wipes or a small towel to wipe off sweat or the rain. I brought sunscreen as well but forgot to wear it. We brought our own drinks because it can be expensive to buy, but we made sure to finish them before entering the concert venue. Actually we managed to sneak in a cold bottle of water somewhere in my backpack but we’re not telling you how we did it (it's really quite ingenious, if I do say so myself *grins*).

Whatever grouses other people may have had, my friend and I had a blast watching the girls' performance, and we’d do it again in a heartbeat. After all, it's not often that Girls' Generation get to come to our shores.


Edited to add more of what we remembered, as well as a few other observations.


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